Women on the Verge of an Explanation

A Review of ‘The How and the Why,’ at Penguin Rep Theater

The publicity flier for Penguin Rep’s production of “The How and the Why” includes one of those ascent-of-man images — a series of figures that begins with a slouching, long-armed ape and ends with a tall, erect hominid. In this instance, the human striding so confidently into the future is a pony-tailed woman wearing slacks and carrying a briefcase. So it was a good bet that Sarah Treem’s play would have something to say about evolution and something to say about feminism. But as it turns out, that is only the starting point for a smart, densely textured work about men and women, love and conflict, genes and destiny.

From the moment Rachel Hardeman sets down her backpack in the tweedy, Gothic Revival office of Professor Zelda Kahn and they share a lingering handshake, the air between them crackles with unspoken questions and possible answers. They are biologists, one still a graduate student, the other an eminent scholar, who seem to be meeting for the first time. But it is evident that their connection runs deeper than a mutual interest in the mysteries of the female reproductive system.

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INTELLECTUAL PURSUIT Gordana Rashovich, standing, plays Professor Zelda Kahn, an eminent scholar, opposite Olivia Horton’s Rachel, a graduate student, in the play “The How and the Why.”Credit
James J. Fenton

If you are thinking that those particular secrets were unveiled when you learned about ovulation, fallopian tubes and the variable lining of the uterus, it is because most of us — even many scientists — settle for knowing only the how of Mother Nature. For Rachel and Zelda, and Ms. Treem as well, it is the why that matters: Why are we among the handful of species subject to menstruation? Why are we the only one that undergoes menopause?

Thus, “The How and the Why,” crisply directed by Joe Brancato and starring Gordana Rashovich as Zelda and Olivia Horton as Rachel. The play, which had its world premiere last year in Princeton, N.J., suggests answers to those very real questions with real science, some unlikely plotting and a bit of poetry from Edna St. Vincent Millay (who also pondered “The How and Why of all things, past, and present, and forevermore”).

Ms. Treem says in a program note that she found her play’s theoretical basis in the book “Woman: An Intimate Geography,” by the Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer for the Times, Natalie Angier. Like the evolutionary biologist George C. Williams, Zelda has proposed a “grandmother hypothesis,” arguing that menopause conferred an evolutionary advantage on primitive humans by allowing older females to gather food for the family while their daughters were pregnant or nursing, which would have been all the time. Like the anthropologist Kristen Hawkes, she has bolstered her theory with firsthand observation of the Hadza hunter-gatherers of Tanzania (the excellent set design by James J. Fenton includes touches of African art in Zelda’s office décor). And like some two dozen evolutionary biologists, she has won the Theodosius Dobzhansky Prize.

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Credit
James J. Fenton

For her part, Rachel has won a Ruth L. Kirschstein grant from the National Institutes of Health, and she has come up with a radical explanation for menstruation. Like the maverick scientist Margie Profet, she believes it evolved to flush out the viruses and bacteria that tag along with sperm during intercourse and threaten to infect the uterus. Also like Ms. Profet, she claims she got the idea from a dream.

Warily, testily — despite their differences, they are very much alike — Rachel and Zelda thrash out their views, exposing not just the facts that support their conclusions but also the way science works, constantly repositioning itself as new evidence comes to light. Good drama works much the same way, and Ms. Treem, a veteran of three seasons of HBO’s psychotherapy series, “In Treatment,” knows how to charge a two-way conversation. So do Ms. Horton and Ms. Rashovich, who nimbly navigate both the biological and the emotional terrain Ms. Treem has given them.

As Rachel takes her first, somewhat wobbly steps to academic recognition, the professional sparring between the two women gives way to a deeper, more personal conversation. Why has Zelda never married? Why does Rachel want to share credit for her insight with her boyfriend? And why is she prone to panic attacks, which Zelda knows how to calm? Weighing all that Zelda has given up to achieve her success, Rachel asks, “Does the ‘grandmother hypothesis’ keep you warm at night?”

With apt costuming by Charlotte Palmer-Lane and effective lighting by Todd O. Wren, Penguin’s production of “The How and the Why” teases a richly theatrical experience out of material that could easily defeat a less talented team. It may not keep you warm at night, but it could certainly keep you up thinking.

“The How and the Why,” by Sarah Treem, is at Penguin Rep Theater, 7 Crickettown Road, Stony Point, Rockland County, through Oct. 28. Information at www.penguinrep.org or 845-786-2873.

A version of this review appears in print on October 14, 2012, on Page WE10 of the New York edition with the headline: Women on the Verge Of an Explanation. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe